Kristen Stewart covers the September issue of Vanity Fair to promote the new Charlie’s Angels movie. It feels like it’s been a while since Kristen has done any kind of in-depth magazine interview, and so I went into this pretty eager to hear about her mindset these days. She’s grown up in front of us, and it’s been messy and fun and tragic and I love that she came out of it all with some sense of who she really is now. She seems very happy and she seems to understand the limits she needs to impose with what she reveals about herself. But she’ll always be my angsty lip-biter, I swear. You can read the full Vanity Fair piece here. Some highlights:
She will soon play Jean Seberg: She’ll play Seberg in director Benedict Andrews’s political thriller, Against All Enemies. It chronicles the late actress’s fatal demise brought on by the FBI’s surveillance program COINTELPRO, which targeted and tried to discredit Seberg because of her relationship with Hakim Jamal and the Black Panther Party. “Even though she went through circumstantially, really horrific, tragic things, there was something about [Seberg] that was energetically undeniable,” says Stewart. “She was so misunderstood. It’s not like you need to hero-worship a celebrity, they are just people you want to look at. The fact that people stared at her and fixated on things that were not real, projections: That really ultimately destroyed her.”
Her Charlie’s Angels character: Sabina, a Park Avenue heiress turned international spy. She’s a lovable doofus, a show-off with a dopey heart. She has a weakness for chasing bad guys, is prone to close calls and staying chill under pressure. She’s always snacking. It’s a comedic turn for Stewart. “I’m not even like that in real life. [Banks] put punch lines on my jokes every day. I overthink stuff, I make everything way too long. She’s like, ‘Dude, just say it faster.’”
She’s dating Stella Maxwell again but will only say this: “I only date people who complement me.”
Breaking Bella: “…I was finally given a chance to be looked at, not as this thing in this celebrity-obsessed culture that was like, ‘Oh, that’s the girl from Twilight.’ I think I’ve grown out of this, but I used to be really frustrated that because I didn’t leap willingly into being at the center of a certain amount of attention, that it seemed like I was an a–hole. I am in no way rebellious. I am in no way contrarian. I just want people to like me.”
Whether she believes in ghosts: “I talk to them. If I’m in a weird, small town, making a movie, and I’m in a strange apartment, I will literally be like, ‘No, please, I cannot deal. Anyone else, but it cannot be me.’ Who knows what ghosts are, but there is an energy that I’m really sensitive to. Not just with ghosts, but with people. People stain rooms all the time.”
She isn’t a strong swimmer. “I don’t want to enter the water, ever. If everyone’s going in the ocean, I’m like, No. When I’m in the water, I doggy-paddle.”
“I am in no way rebellious. I am in no way contrarian. I just want people to like me.” I don’t believe her. I mean, sure, she wanted people to like her at some point, but I covered her interviews in the Twilight era and she was a contrarian and a little rebel without a cause. That was her whole brand, but it was who she really was: a snarl, not a smile. And it was fun to watch because even though she was a poseur back then, it was refreshing to see a young woman in a franchise who wasn’t some hyper-styled fembot. Also: I totally believe her about ghosts and presences. I’ve walked into rooms or houses for the first time and just gotten bad vibes. I’ve never talked to those bad vibes and told them to chill though.
Kristen Stewart for Vanity Fair! Photographs by Alasdair McLellan. Story by @durgapolashi: https://t.co/mAyUnKOzaJ pic.twitter.com/qsZW97m0vy
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) July 30, 2019
Photos courtesy of Vanity Fair.
That cover is one of the most attractive pictures I’ve ever seen of her.
I’ve said my one nice thing for the day 🙂
Yes! I was also thinking it is so naturally her.
I never believed in ghosts til I moved into a 105 year old home that had one. It took me several years before I learned to talk to her and it worked. She was especially active at night and would turn my lights and tv on in the middle of the night and open and close my bedroom door. One night I was totally frustrated and sat up and said “ please I have a meeting early tomorrow , I have to get sleep! Not a peep for the rest of the night.
I do the same thing, telling ghosts to leave. I’ve even gone so far as to open my front door and kindly ask them to leave my home. It’s probably just a psychological exercise, but it helps me when I get creeped out by a certain “feeling” in new places. I think it’s an exercise on feeling in control. I’ve always had anxiety related to feeling spirits or negative energy in certain houses or even hotel rooms. I truly don’t know what I’m feeling; but ever since I felt empowered to tell it to leave, that’s really worked for me. I’m always on the fence about whether ghosts are real, but I definitely have had this specific anxiety since I was a small child. I wish I had learned much younger to take control of the situation.
I read through to the entire article. It is a bit amusing—you can tell she’s definitely grown up a lot. Still a bit of angst, but she seems way happier, more at peace, and she barely curses anymore lol. Never really saw KStew as someone into spirituality and ghosts…seems more like a Shailene Woodley thing. I thought the comments from the director about how she fought him to get the crew screen credits cast her in a good light.
I like Kristen. Always have. Even when it wasn’t popular to do so. And I actually DO believe she just wanted to be liked. She was a teenager when Twilight first came out. All teenage girls want to be liked. Even the ones who say they don’t. Now i think she became very guarded and uncomfortable with the amount of scrutiny she received, but who wouldn’t? I think now that she’s a woman she has embraced herself a bit more and maybe that “go her own way” streak that we all saw is more genuine now then it was then.
As for the ghosts things. I am ALL about vibes. Vibes to me are our instincts speaking to us. I get bad vibes from people, places and things all the time. And I immediately know to avoid them if possible.
Everything you said. She was so young during the Twilight years. She worked with a bunch of adults, and that’s intimidating enough. Any thing she did was just so public. I think she’s moved into adulthood well because her mom is in the business, so Hollywood wasn’t so mysterious and alluring, but not having the full range of your brain in the late teens makes it rough for everybody, and much more for someone in the public eye. I like the person who is in the news, and how she handles mistakes, and how she isn’t everywhere on purpose. I like that she comes off as if acting is a job and not saving the world.
I like to think the interview was transcribed wrong and she truly meant “I only date people who compliment me.”
Lol!
Either… Both are ludicrous lol.
“I am in no way rebellious. I am in no way contrarian. I just want people to like me.” I don’t believe her.
Same.
And the I only date people who compliment me. I know we are supposed to read that as complimentary strength and weaknesses but I wouldn’t be surprised if she likes a lot of actual compliments… I don’t know why she gives off such strong I’m an asshole in relationships vibes to me. 🤷♀️
She said “complement”, that is not the same word as “compliment” – before you start insulting her for something she never said, please make sure you understand the words that she used.
No need to be patronizing or rude. Ali just seemed to be saying that she wouldn’t be surprised if Stewart likes actual compliments (the noun), not just someone who is complementary (the adjective). It’s not like any of us actually know Stewart personally here, so I’m not sure why you’re getting so defensive.
I have had my fair share of encounters. I’ve been touched, smelled floral perfume, scratched, heard things, electronics going nuts. I could go on. Growing up, our house was built on a cemetery. In my case, asking them to stop wasn’t enough. It was serious and made worse when I wasn’t believed. When I moved out, I thought problem solved. Nope! They followed me and it took ten years to be able to finally have some peace.
@Aims
Yikes! They FOLLOWED you? What did you do to throw them off, so that you’re at peace now?
Well, this is going to sound crazy, as if my story isn’t crazy enough. But when my grandma passed within a week it stopped. I believe she was working on the other side. I haven’t had anything really since.
I had forgotten about this poser. Glad to see that she is doing well. I was hoping she would have grown out of this phase into something more emotionally mature but it looks like she is the same old girl.
The snippet from this interview does not make her sound bad at all, which is good for her I guess. She still sounds like the pretentious teenager who smokes and curses to appear edgy and deep. She is reaching for something but she still does not have a handle on whatever she is reaching for.
I am pulling for her in my own way. Going from a child star to working adult actress is tough.
I’ve always liked Kristen….since she was a kid…I think she is PERFECT to play Jean Seberg…they’ve got that same type of manic-pixie energy…with a hint of unforeseen tragedy……..
that ghost thing is related to her movie “personal shopper” — it’s the only time I’ve actively been interested in her in something.
She’s come a long way. I’ve always liked her because she was contrarian as a default setting for when she was not comfortable, clearly. It just made her more relatable than the robotic teens groomed by creepy agents and stage families. And she also picks independent films rather than just going the blockbuster way. It actually helps good auteur cinema to have these stars, like Julianne Moore and Kidman doing those kinds of films. She seems smart and stable, having found her own ground.
I actually cannot wait for Charlie’s Angels. And I didn’t even like the Drew Barrymore one. I really want to see Kristen do a goofy role and Liz Banks is great.
She always looks beautiful and striking in magazine shoots. There’s a bit of Winona Ryder in Kristen, it’s the eyes.
I had to laugh when she shuddered when passing her first girlfriends house. We’ve all been there Kristen lollll I really like her and Stella together. Hope they last, but Kristen is so restless in relationships. She goes from one to the other. It’s messy and I’d love her to stay single for like a year just once in her life but then I think of how many male celebs do just what she’s doing without judgement so I’m like okay girl. You go and do your thing!
This whole thing about ghosts sounds like the plot of one of her movies: Personal Shopper. Lol! 😆
Kristen is talented and pretty and all, but who looked at her and thought she would be perfect to play Jean Seberg. No, just no. Kristen is this waif-ish person. Jean Seberg, who was one of those effortlessly beautiful people with a more substantial female presence, nothing like Kristen. I just don’t see it. Even with makeup and hair and all the acting in the world, she will still be this slight, petite presence.
There’s an accompanying VF video on Youtube, and it’s good! She seems super happy & chill atm